Northampton County Courthouse

State-of-the-Art Audio/Visual Installation

DSI installed audiovisual systems for the renovation of the Northampton County Courthouse Boardroom. The project consisted of two rooms: an 80-seat, 1,800 sq ft boardroom and an adjacent A/V equipment room. These fully functioning audiovisual presentation/training systems allow various video and data inputs to be displayed on two visual display devices from local or remote inputs and amplification of audio source equipment, audio-from-video source equipment, and/or live microphones. The system is operated by a Crestron control system with a touch panel interface.

Audio System

The Audio System includes two presentation lectern microphones and eleven Dais microphones. The Lectern has laptop connections for both analog and digital inputs. The audio is controlled by an automatic Digital Matrix Mixer. Audio from all microphones and selected program sources are fed to a DSP-based audio processing system for mixing and routing to the appropriate speaker zones utilizing mix-minus to improve gain before feedback for this sound reinforcement application. The speakers are separated into three zones within the boardroom: Zone-1 consists of six speakers for the gallery, Zone-2 has two speakers over the lectern, and Zone 3 contains four speakers located over the dais seating area.

Video System

The Video System consists of one VGA and one HDMI interface which are provided in the presentation lectern to accommodate a laptop connection. The signals are encoded and transmitted via Crestron Digital Media over STP Cat 5E cable. All visual sources are fed to a Crestron Digital Media matrix switcher, which is located in the A/V equipment room. There is one 70" LCD Display wall-mounted behind the Dais and one 40" LCD display mounted to the front of presentation lectern.

Touch Panel Automation

The A/V Control System is a 9" Wired Color Touch Panel located at the Clerk’s Desk. Custom programming with system presets was provided to accommodate multiple room configurations.

Training and Support

This historical building has tin ceiling tiles and low ceiling height, making for an acoustically challenging environment. These challenges were overcome with precise configuration of the audio processing system. DSI provided on-site support of initial uses of the system and trained County personnel on system operation.